itch.io

Played a few encounters, and the mechanics and lore work really well together, like you're a ticking nuclear bomb with a reset switch. Even early on, you feel like you're entering battle with lots of firepower and options, but you'll have to make painful tradeoffs depending on the situation. 

At first, I made a couple of moves that I later realized shouldn't be allowed: I wanted to set up a combination of movements and attacks, but realized that the encounter flow is pretty clear that all attacks and harm happen at the same time, at the end of each turn. Other than that, pretty easy to follow -- the built-in tutorial / first scenario is a good setup!

Enjoyed my first playthrough (Kirgant lived to face the mourning flower and its undead minions, did not live through a requiem commune cursed by a witch and destroyed by orbital weaponry...)!

Clarification: I totally missed the point of haxes playing the first time, but am I right that they let you mark runes to resolve their associated action? I.e., when I have Rope & Bone, I can choose any rune to resolve an explore action?  

It didn't click when I read it before, and I thought it was a chance to mark a rune from the matrix so you wouldn't have that outcome come up later (influencing the odds / fate indirectly). However, I didn't ever use them this way, because it feels bad to mark off runes without getting something in return 🙃

I think the haxes description and keywords are pretty clear and succinct, but an example turn description (even in prose) could help make the mechanic crystal clear.

Thanks for a fun playground!